It’s hard to tell when a room on another floor, or across the building is occupied or vacant. At Adafruit we have a popular meeting room however sometimes it’s being used and if you want to have a meeting, you have to wait or go somewhere else. How handy would it be if we had a public dashboard to view if the room is occupied? Using an Adafruit FunHouse board, a infrared PIR sensor, and AdafruitIO WipperSnapper, we can make it happen.

Additionally, in the bonus section, you can install a status light to add a layer of visibility to the room’s occupancy status.

Prerequisite Guide:

WipperSnapper is an interface for Adafruit IO, Adafruit's incredibly easy-to-use IoT platform, designed to turn any WiFi-capable board into an IoT device without programming a single line of code.

If you've never used WipperSnapper, click below to read through the Quickstart WipperSnapper guide before continuing.

Parts

Adafruit Parts:

Other materials needed:

• A piece of cardboard sized 2" x 7" or larger. The thicker cardboard the better. This will be used to mount the PIR sensor.
• A box cutter
• A pen or pencil
• A mat to cut cardboard on
• Single-sided scotch tape or similar
• Double-sided tape OR thumb tacks

Parts for the status light (optional):

For the lighting connections to the Stemma relay, you can choose:

Which will require:

OR keep things simple with:

The Passive infrared (PIR) sensor recommended in this guide detects movement from up to 20 ft. away. It's beefier than the smaller PIR sensor usually suggested for use with the FunHouse. This sensor comes with a 1-foot cable to connect to the FunHouse. The FunHouse has a built-in port for a PIR sensor but you will not use that due to the fact that this PIR sensor needs at least 5V to operate and the PIR sensor input on the FunHouse only provide 3.3V. Do not fear, however, because a Stemma cable can be used to connect to one of the Stemma ports on the FunHouse which gives the sensor the 5V it requires to function. 

Wago Connectors

The PIR sensor cable ends have a smaller than ideal wire gauge (thickness) and will not be able to plug directly into the Stemma cable. These handy Wago wire snap block connectors can be used to connect the PIR wires to the FunHouse Stemma port. These handy little blocks make it easy to connect two wires of different gauge thicknesses without any soldering.

Wiring and Assembly

Altogether it should look like this!

The next step is to get your Funhouse set up in the Adafruit IO WipperSnapper page. Follow the instructions in the Quickstart guide to do this. 

Test the PIR Sensor

Next, test out the PIR sensor to verify it's working properly.

• Move your hand in front of the sensor.
• Check the WipperSnapper device page to see if the value changes from open (no movement detected) to closed (movement detected) for your sensor.

Troubleshooting the Sensor

If you are not receiving accurate feedback from the sensor, verify the following:

• The sensor is correctly wired according to the directions on the "Add the PIR Sensor" page
• The sensor is connected to the A1 pin on the FunHouse via a Stemma connector.

Now that you have verified that the sensor is working, it's time to create a visual dashboard that represents the room's occupancy status via the sensor's output.

Step 1: Create a New Feed

Before you create the dashboard with the icons that represent the room's occupancy, you will need to create a feed to give the dashboard. This feed will eventually contain the values icon names that will appear in the dashboard.

Step 2: Set Up the Actions and Choose Icons

Now that there's a home for the icon values, you'll need to point those values to the Dashboard when certain events happen. You'll define those events with actions. Here are the actions to create:

• When the sensor detects motion (value is 1), send the message "close"
• When the sensor detects no motion (value is 0), send the message "circle-o"

First, create a action for when motion is detected.

Next, create a trigger for when no motion is detected.

Step 3: Create a Dashboard

Now that the feed and triggers are set up. You can create a dashboard to view the status of the room occupancy based via the icons in the feed.

Test it Out

The block is created now, try moving your hand over the sensor and see if the Dashboard block responds.

Step 4: Make it Public (optional)

Lastly, if you'd like other people in your organization or building to have access to the room's occupancy status, you can make the dashboard public.

Dashboard Sharing Link Options

There are two types of links to share a Dashboard for others to view.

Option 1: This is the main URL for the dashboard, anyone that has an Adafruit IO account can view and edit the Dashboard.

Option 2: Kiosk Mode. This link will only allow others to view the data from the dashboard and does not require the user to have an AdafruitIO account. For the purposes of this guide, this link is the better option of the two for sharing with those who will want access to the room occupancy status.

You can use a piece of cardboard from any old box to mount the sensor. Check out the below guide for some great tips on cutting cardboard and more.

That's it! You're ready to track the room's occupancy status! Give the sensor a minute or two to acclimate and calibrate before trusting its accuracy. You can adjust the sensitivity and the length of time the sensor is triggered by adjusting the potentiometers on the back of the sensor with a Philips head screwdriver.

Follow this bonus section to add a status light to your project. The purpose of the light is to see visually if the room is occupied without needing to check online on the dashboard page. 

Wiring

Here are all the parts connected.

For more info on the Stemma relay and how it works, peep the below guide.

Add the Sensor to WipperSnapper and create the triggers

Creating the following triggers will turn the light on when movement is detected from the PIR sensor.

Test and Mount

Test out the light and relay. Plug in the 9V power for the relay. Make sure the PIR sensor is still connected to A1 of the FunHouse. Wave your hand in front of the sensor and verify that the light turns on when movement is sensed.

Once it's working properly, pick a spot for the light. This light has special mounting screws. You may want to have the light outside of the room or at least facing away from the room so it does not distract those inside of the room.

If you made it this far, congrats. You have built the project in its entirety including the bonus section! Take some pride in knowing if your desired room is occupied without leaving your seat :D